


They did this now. Kiss.

by tinglingworld



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinglingworld/pseuds/tinglingworld
Summary: Millennium wasn't Mulder and Scully's first kiss. A little bit of an alternate take on their relationship. Set somewhere in early season 5.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	They did this now. Kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> So I know there’s constant discussion about when Mulder and Scully first kissed and when they first slept with each other and the beauty of the show is that there’s any number of possible answers to that question. However, I read someone on tumblr saying they didn’t believe Millennium was their first kiss. And I think I agree. So that remark and that Cutting Room kiss between David and Gillian were what inspired me to write this little story. It’s really just an excuse to explore this idea a little. It might be a bit of an alternate take on their relationship, and I’m not even entirely sure what I think of this take but I found it worth exploring anyway.

„Good Night, Mulder.“

„Good Night, Scully.“ He rested one hand gently on her upper arm and leaned in to press a gentle kiss to her lips before turning with a smile and disappearing out the door and across the hall into his own motel room.

Scully slowly stepped back and closed the door behind him, her lips still tingling from the contact.

They did this now. Kiss. Not always, not all the time. But when there was no one else around, no field office agents, no local police or park rangers or whoever guided them around today's case' small town, they kissed Hello and Good Night. Like right now.

As Scully went around the room, gathering her things to turn in for the night, she thought about this recent development in their relationship. She’d never had anything like it. She’d had friends and she’d had lovers but she’d never had something that lay so decidedly in between it was impossible to define.

She wasn’t in love with Mulder and yet she did love him. He was her partner, the one person into whose hands she gave her life over and over, trusting him to have her back and having his in return. But he was also her best friend. The person she wanted to share all her good news with and the person whom she called when she received the very worst because his voice as much as his entire being had come to mean _home_ to her.

She’d never kissed her friends before though, neither male nor female. And yet, when Mulder had first pressed his lips to hers it had felt as natural as breathing and she’d at once known exactly how it was meant and that there was nothing romantic in it. It was- comfort. One more way of saying “I care for you. I’m here with you”.

  
In a way it was funny. They were both so bad at communicating their feelings and needs. She remembered many awkward silences and bruised egos and unnecessary arguments that could’ve been resolved so easily if one of them had just had the nerve to say “I don’t understand why you did that thing, could you maybe explain?” instead of trying to come to their own conclusions. And yet when it came to letting their bodies do the speaking they were so attuned to each. It went all the way back to the beginning of their partnership and his habit of guiding her with his hand on the small of her back. It was a gesture she’d despise from any other man, but from Mulder she had never minded it. Contrary to the reputation and the nickname, Scully had always felt inexplicably comfortable around Mulder. Sure, his theories were often insane, his unquivering belief in the supernatural exasperating and the way in which he often threw all caution in the wind and went running headfirst into the unknown was downright infuriating, but the fact remained. She’d liked him from the beginning and somewhere along the road being comfortable had morphed into feeling safe into him becoming her home port.

Scully smiled at her mirror image at the sappy metaphor while she patted her face dry with the scratchy motel towel, before killing the light and padding over to the bed and snuggling under the covers. Her pillow smelled faintly of his aftershave, she noticed and rolled her eyes. Of course it did. He had been lounging on it all evening.

This really was the weirdest relationship of her life but at the same time, it was also probably the very best. And while no, she didn’t love him like that, she had stopped longing for a romantic partner a while ago. She missed sex, true. After her last one-night stand had almost turned deadly only to be followed up by a cancer diagnosis, treatment, near-death experience, and subsequent miracle cure, it had been a while. But Scully was no stranger to scratching that particular itch with a willing partner for a night- or two or three-, without emotional attachment. Despite her Catholic upbringing, she wasn’t that innocent.

She knew Mulder did the same. She caught glimpses of the women he was with every once in a while, when they got called out on an early morning flight and she picked him up at his apartment or when the call came in the middle of the night. The basement might’ve put a damper on his career but he was still a good-looking charismatic man, who, against what office gossip said, was entirely capable of talking about things other than aliens and conspiracies.

She didn’t care and it was what made this relationship of theirs so very weird. Scully despised the whole ‘men and women can never be just friends’ stereotype and yet it didn’t come from nowhere. And so yes, she was still a little taken aback by the depth and nature of her relationship with Mulder and she couldn’t entirely blame her mother for nagging her about Mulder after she’d caught them kissing Good Bye when he had spent Easter with them. But as unusual as it was, she knew deep in her heart she didn’t want it to change. Not when that first time he’d kissed her, in a hospital hallway in Allentown, Pennsylvania, after she’d been deceived into a therapy that was designed to accelerate her death instead of saving her life had left her body weak and her soul bruised, his touch had breathed life back into her and kept her from falling apart.

Maybe it was initially born from his immediate fear of losing her, but what did it matter? It had been a justified fear for so many months. And now her cancer was three months in remission and they stilled kissed Hello and Good Bye and “I’m here for you” and “I understand” and “I feel your pain” and why did she even care what they looked like to an outsider?

Mulder was her best friend. Her partner. Missy would’ve probably said her soulmate. Scully smiled to herself. She needed to sleep instead of mentally dissecting what didn’t even need to be questioned, especially not this late at night before an early morning flight back to DC. Nuzzling into her pillow she closed her eyes and breathing deeply, slowly drifted into peaceful sleep.


End file.
